Industrial plants and power plants utilize water from nearby water sources for cooling purposes. Consequently, a problem of the ingestion of particulates or aquatic life (e.g., fish, fish eggs, larvae, zebra mussels, vegetation, etc.) into the cooling system water intakes by suction, random entry, or other means is created. The same problem exists in any similar facility where water or materials in the water are required for some purpose and are obtained from water bodies containing particulates and/or aquatic life.
Floating barrier or containment/exclusion boom systems have been installed at these water intakes to deal with these problems of ingestion. This design is optimal for most situations, but problems arise when the body of water has a significant amount of natural debris, flotsam and jetsam, etc., which can impact onto the boom and or build up against the boom, either damaging or stressing the system, or both. Additionally, high currents or wave conditions can damage a typical boom. In a location where these conditions exist with some degree of regularity, the floating containment boom would undergo severe weathering and damage. This leads to the need to demobilize the boom to affect its repair and, as a result, thereby expose the water intake to particulates, aquatic life, or debris that otherwise would have been excluded in large part.
Thus, it would be advantageous to have a marine life exclusion system that can withstand these environmental forces, allow for repair, simplified maintenance and replacement of damaged panels without demobilizing the entire containment/exclusion system.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming these deficiencies.